1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to an array system for detecting and identifying biomolecules and organisms. More specifically, the present embodiments relate to an array system comprising a microarray configured to simultaneously detect a plurality of organisms in a sample at a high confidence level.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry, biopolymers such as nucleic acids and proteins from organisms are identified and/or fractionated in order to search for useful genes, diagnose diseases or identify organisms. A hybridization reaction is frequently used as a pretreatment for such process, where a target molecule in a sample is hybridized with a nucleic acid or a protein having a known sequence. For this purpose, microarrays, or DNA chips, are used on which probes such as DNAs, RNAs or proteins with known sequences are immobilized at predetermined positions.
A DNA microarray (also commonly known as gene or genome chip, DNA chip, or gene array) is a collection of microscopic DNA spots attached to a solid surface, such as glass, plastic or silicon chip forming an array. The affixed DNA segments are known as probes (although some sources will use different nomenclature), thousands of which can be used in a single DNA microarray. Measuring gene expression using microarrays is relevant to many areas of biology and medicine, such as studying treatments, disease, and developmental stages. For example, microarrays can be used to identify disease genes by comparing gene expression in diseased and normal cells.
Molecular approaches designed to describe organism diversity routinely rely upon classifying heterogeneous nucleic acids amplified by universal 16S RNA gene PCR (polymerase chain reaction). The resulting mixed amplicons can be quickly, but coarsely, typed into anonymous groups using T-/RFLP (Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), SSCP (single-strand conformation polymorphism) or T/DGGE (temperature/denaturing gradient gel. electrophoresis). These groups may be classified through sequencing, but this requires additional labor to physically isolate each 16S RNA type, does not scale well for large comparative studies such as environmental monitoring, and is only suitable for low complexity environments. Also, the number of clones that would be required to adequately catalogue the majority of taxa in a sample is too large to be efficiently or economically handled. As such, an improved array and method is needed to efficiently analyze a plurality of organisms without the disadvantages of the above technologies.